Freshly-ground wild boar from the Texas Hill Country is mixed with chopped yellow onions, Italian sweet chili powder, fresh garlic, sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Formed into patties, then fried in sage brown butter and served over two-corn polenta (fresh kernel corn and stone-ground yellow flint corn) with sweet peppers and fresh chives..
Savory Wild Boar Sausage with Fried Sage, Two-Corn Polenta
Linguiça is a meaty-flavored, brined and lightly-smoked Portuguese sausage made with pork butt, oregano, and paprika. Reminiscent of feijoada or a small cassoulet, it is combined here with uncured, smoked bacon, garlic sausage, onions and fava beans and simmered with tomatoes, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg..
Portuguese Linguiça and Fava Bean Stew
Serves 2
2 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock
1 large link Portuguese linguiça, sliced
1/4 cup garlic sausage, diced
2 slices uncured, smoked bacon, diced
1/2 Spanish onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry fava beans, blanched and peeled (use fresh when in season)
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 4″ stick of cinnamon
1 whole nutmeg seed, abraded
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 cup celery, diced
1 Roma tomato, diced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped celery leaves
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Fry bacon until nearly crisp. Add onions, linguiça, garlic sausage and cumin and sauté until very well browned. Pour off grease and transfer meat to a strainer and allow to drain thoroughly. De-glaze pan with a little stock, scraping up all the brown bits with the back of a wooden spoon.
Add cinnamon, garlic, nutmeg, celery and the rest of the stock, reduce heat and simmer until beans are nearly tender, about 45 minutes.
Remove cinnamon and nutmeg and add the meat, tomatoes and tomato paste, celery leaves and parsley and simmer 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then ladle into bowls. Drizzle a little good olive oil over the top and serve hot.
All I wanted was a little fresh Italian sausage, so I went to the market to take a number to stand in line to pay an outrageous sum of $4 a pound.
Hold on. Did I just see sugar in the list of ingredients? And sodium nitrite?!
While this chemical will prevent the growth of bacteria, it can be toxic for mammals. (LD50 in rats is 180 mg/kg.) For this reason, sodium nitrite sold as a food additive is dyed bright pink to avoid mistaking it for something else. Cooks and makers of charcuterie often simply refer to sodium nitrite as “pink salt”.
Various dangers of using this as a food additive have been suggested and researched by scientists. A principal concern is the formation of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines by the reaction of sodium nitrite with amino acids in the presence of heat in an acidic environment. Its usage is carefully regulated in the production of cured products; in the United States, the concentration in finished products is limited to 200 ppm, and is usually lower. In about 1970, it was found that the addition of ascorbic acid inhibited nitrosamine production. U.S. manufacturing of cured meats now requires the addition of 500 ppm of ascorbic acid or erythorbic acid, a cheaper isomer. Sodium nitrite has also been linked to triggering migraines.
Time to make my own sausage, the way I like it, with lots of Not Sugar and extra No Preservatives!
Talk to your butcher. Ask her for some nice, fresh, boneless pork. Trim any excess fat and membrane, and push the cold pork through your grinder. Add seasoning if you wish, but do grind it a second time.
Leftover sausage deteriorates quickly, so if you’re not going to use it within 2 days, store it frozen, pressed flat in a zipper bag.